Sarah Rose Donnelly
Sarah Rose Donnelly
Sustainable Design Leader
 

Sustainable Design Leadership

A Pioneering New Sustainable Design Leadership Role & Sustainability Consulting Service Development

This case study encapsulates my transformative professional journey from a compelling thesis topic to my current role in sustainable design leadership.

 

The Catalyst: Misaligned Values

In 2019, a pivotal moment sparked a reevaluation of my design career. This moment highlighted the juxtaposition between my daily creative projects as a designer in the mass retail industry and evolving sustainability values. Faced with the realization that my creative skills were inadvertently contributing to negative environmental and social impacts, including climate change, I resolved to deepen my knowledge of sustainability.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I invested in my personal and professional growth through the Minneapolis College of Art and Design Master of Arts in Sustainable Design (MCAD MASD) program. Balancing a full-time role as a design manager throughout the intensive two-and-a-half-year program, I developed an adept understanding of sustainability frameworks, sustainable design strategies, systems-thinking, and data visualization and storytelling.

Professional Sustainability Goals

This thesis establishes the candidate as a strategic sustainable design leader, with the skills, qualities, and creativity to develop solutions that meet growing consumer and organizational demands for sustainable practices and products. The candidate's career goals include identifying, defining, and creating leadership opportunities to advance sustainable innovations for brands in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. This thesis demonstrates the candidate's ability to communicate complex sustainability topics and establish system-level solutions for an emerging future.

- Sarah Rose Donnelly (Hummel), Master of Arts in Sustainable Design Thesis 2022

 

The Pivot Point: My Thesis

I strategically selected a thesis topic that allowed me to explore in depth how to bridge my creative skillsets with the purpose-driven career I was seeking. It is aptly titled, “Creative Design Agency Transformation: Identifying Emerging Roles for Design Leadership in Sustainability”. This thesis output provides actionable tools for purpose-driven designers and creative design agencies to increase capabilities, build resiliency, and create adaptability to support the emerging future.

 

Key insights include:

  • Defining the optimal leverage point for sustainable design as belonging within the strategy phase

  • Proposing both bottom-up and top-down sustainable design leadership approaches to empower designers, increase capabilities, and support organizational transformation

  • Advocating for organizational transformation using a complex adaptive system (CAS) model to create the capacity to adapt to environmental, social, and market pressures – now, and in the future

  • Advancing the field of sustainable design by identifying and defining a new-to-industry sustainable design leadership role, the Design Director of Sustainability, to engage sustainability at the optimal leverage point and provide domain expertise to create accountability for sustainable solutions

 
 
 

The Career Evolution: From Theory to Professional Application

In 2022, my thesis was pivotal in propelling my career forward. Following the presentation of a compelling business case for a pioneering new position, I was granted the chance to transition from my role as Design Manager to the role of Creative Manager of Sustainability.

As the Creative Manager of Sustainability at JLB, a retail business consulting firm, I prioritize sustainability at the strategic phase of client engagement to proactively create accountability for more sustainable solutions entering the marketplace. This role is a fusion of creativity and sustainability - supporting retailers and CPG brands on their unique sustainability journeys.

Serving as the Creative Manager of Sustainability, I have:

  • Developed and led sustainability consulting services for retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) clients, alike, including credible advising, strategy development for products and packaging, and sustainability storytelling

  • Enhanced meaningful research to uncover consumers’ perceptions and attitudes toward sustainability with GuestQuest, JLB’s consumer research business segment

  • Identified strategic CPG brand recommendations and further developed accurate and transparent sustainability messaging to align with retailer sustainability initiatives

  • Deepened shared organizational knowledge of sustainability acumen and third-party eco-certifications

In Reflection

The successful completion of my Master of Arts in Sustainable Design, coupled with a strategic career pivot, signifies the alignment of my creative skillset with my core values. This transformative process has not only deepened my expertise in a subject I am deeply passionate about but has also strengthened my sense of leadership and the value I bring to teams and our interconnected world.

As I continue to advance my career, I am excited to expand my impact by guiding companies in embedding sustainability into their business practices and incorporating sustainable design strategies in the products and services we use each day.